The Irish standard., 1887-03-05
THE SITUATION IN IRELAND.
The Curt Message Of the Marquis of Sails
bury and the Answe- Of the
Irish Tenantry.
Mr.. GLADSTONE'S HONEST OFFER
The Queens Speech at Che Recent Open
inc of the British Parliament
f 4t
and the Debate.

inc Of the British Parliament
and the Debate.
PAY or clear OUT was the curt mes
sage of the Marquis Of Salisbury, the
present British, premier, to the Irish
tenantry Toe answer Of the Irish ten
antry was equally curt and very clear.
1--WE can't pay and we won't clear out
unless you force u.s." So the Salisbury
policy in dealing with the Irish Ques-
tion has become q policy OF force OF
nothing. i.... +.s.g 49,.
It is not q time for England to be
divided, for the British Empire to be
divided, in council and at heart, says
the Catholic Review. The strongest
man in Europe has declared that war
may come at any moment. War may
come. with or without his intervention.
The result of the war which the Ger
man Chancellor predicts, and to meet
which all Europe is armed, may be the
disruption Of empires and a new change
of an ever hanging map.
Since MI. Gladstone's honest offer Of
peace and good ill and Home Rule for
ireland, without disruption Of the Brit
lsh Empire, was given forth from the
British Parliament, the attitude of the
Irish people has been one Of patience,
hope and confidence. Actions Of vio-
lence against agrarian laws, pronounced
unjust, not by Mr. Gladstone alone, but
by many English statesmen of all
parties, ceased. Here and there hap
pened an occasional outbreak-in no in
stance without some excuse or pallia-
tion. Gen. Sir Redyers Butler, q sol
dier OF irmness and repute, was sent
by the Tory Government expressly to
quell such outbreaks. Soldiers are often
compelled to do harsh things against
their own convictions and feelings. AS
the English laureate, who has so re-
Gently i'll his latest poem condemned
with all the force Of his genius the
starving Irish peasant who MAY happen
to adopt desperate means to make his
standing wrongs felt, and impress the
reality of those wrongs Oh the acting
government, said long ago OF the SOL
diers, English and Irish, Scotch and
Welsh combined, of the Light Brigade
in their desperate, fatal, but brilliant
and effective charge at Balaklava:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to 10 and die,''
so inJo the valley Of death y at Bala-
klaya rode the six huudred.'' even
though the soldiers knew some one
had bundered."
With this recognition of the impera-
tiveness OF military obedience, it is easy
to imagine that Gen Redvers Butler,
who was sent with his flying columns
by the Tory Government to quell the
local disturbances in Kerry, would have
acted with, what to him, as soldier,
was a necessary military harshness
against the agitated people. And what
did he do? Practically, he broke his
sword. His conviction and his heart
went out to the people in their honest
struggle for life. Soldier he was and
an experienced general, a man who had
faced and ridden to death again and
again in many battle. But in Kerry
he found war he could not wage, and
white acting strictly within his COM
mission, he openly sided with the peo-
pie he was sent to coerce. But the
Salisbury Government refused to heed
this significant action of their own
General.
AS for the Queens Speech at the re-
cent opening of the British Parliament,
who remembers a word of it? The de.
bate on the Speech fingers and dwindlas
and drivels itself away. The tone of
the debate shows plainly enough that
the speakers feel they are attending in
advance the funeral of a moribund Gov
ernment. Mr.. Parnel, whom we are
grieved to hearts in i'll health, made the
most notable speech in the debate. He
went over a great deal of the old ground
in his speech. for 1t is necessary to re-
peat and repeat III order to drive the
truth home to the heart and the head of
the English people. He condemned the
Tory policy. of coercion t.as an incite-
ment to conspiracy" Again and again,
years back, as our files show, has the
Catholic Review condemned coercion on
that very ground: We are also wholly
with Mr.. Parnell, when, weak and ill as
he was, he declared, speaking as the
leader OF the Irish party, that even if
the Tories eobtained from the Par]ia-
ment 'spowers Of oppression equalling
those ofIthe Gar, they would never be
able to administer them underta a Gonsti-
tutional Government, nor SO long as
Irish members had seats in !! Parlia-
ment.n And those who know nything
at all Of the Irish people, their charac-
ter and their history, will, as Sir Red